by Valerie Worth, Steve Jenkins (Illustrator)
Each of the exquisite twenty-three poems in this posthumous collection by Valerie Worth carefully distinguishes one animal from all other creatures and captures it in all of its wonderful singularity – from wasp to snake to wren. The way Worth perfectly illuminates the uniqueness of each animal in her precise and elegant free verse will delight both fans of her celebrated Small Poems and readers encountering her poetry for the first time.
Animal Poems Hardcover by Valerie Worth
Steve Jenkins (1952-2022) was the author The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest, and the Caldecott Honor Book What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? (co-created with his wife Robin Page). He also collaborated with many other authors, contributing his colorful torn paper art collages to April Pulley Sayre's Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep, Lisa Westberg Peters' Volcano Wakes Up!, and Valerie Worth's Pug and Other Animal Poems.
Valerie Worth (1933-1994) born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in nearby Swarthmore. Three more volumes followed: More Small Poems (1976); Still More Small Poems (1978); and Small Poems Again (1986). All four volumes were issued in a single paperback, All the Small Poems (1987), and seven years later, All the Small Poems and Fourteen More was released. In 2002, FSG posthumously published Peacock and Other Poems by Valerie Worth, with pictures by Natalie Babbitt.